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It Appears On-Line Dating is Filled with Scammers

I thought it might be a bit of fun to join an on-line dating site, as it’d give me something else to do. Who knew scammers abound on these sites? And can you believe it, I stumbled into two of them right off the bat.

First some man allegedly named Tim Webber sent me long e mails and then asked me to message back and forth on Yahoo, which I stupidly did. Why I do some of the things I do, I’ll never know, but I think mostly it’s because I’m honest and assume the world operates on similar ethical principles. Not!

This man (or perhaps a teenaged girl on a lark for all I know) stated he was working in Afghanistan, and I fell for that. We messaged back and forth, and then one day nothing further was heard from him. And this from someone calling me “sweetie” and “baby”!

At the same time as he disappeared, another scammer named Patrick Grant e mailed me and pretended he was moving to Kelowna, and get this, I briefly fell for that, too! Please offer me land on the coast of Florida, as I’ll probably go for that.

You know there must be legitimate people on these web sites, but I only meet fake ones. The ones who appear real wear baseball caps and like bowling, and so I think on-line dating may be for two groups: losers and scammers. Why am I on this site??

Dear God. But you may recall a Bugs Bunny episode in which Yosemite Sam wants the Bunny to dive from a platform into a container of water. Sam says at one point, “I paid my two bits to see the high divin’ act, and I’m a gonna see the high divin’ act.”

In other words, I paid for three months of torture on this site, and damn it, I want my three months’ worth of scammers and losers.

You should see the effort these people put into it, too. Patrick Grant would send long, detailed messages about his life, but as he didn’t roof read them carefully, we could see they were cut and pasted and sent to several people! I say “we” as all e mails were forwarded to no less than 15 people, just for their input and amusement.

I figure if it’s on-line dating, and therefore in writing, then let’s get as much input on these individuals as possible. It’s been very interesting, as some people are excellent in pointing out errors and clearly see the scam, whereas others are like me, kind of naive. As I believe in Karma, I just can’t understand why someone would jeopardize their current and next lives with such bullshit.

It’s very strange, this world of internet dating. Yet we all know people who were able to find someone decent this way.

I had a fab visit with Renate last week, and we went to Osoyoos and met a bunch of women from the Ya Ya Sisterhood for dinner. Now that’s what I call fun. Maryjoy, Phyllis, Rhonda, Renate and I had dinner at Walnut Beach Resort, and it was a lovely evening.

So why I’d want to go and wreck a charmed life with a man, I don’t know. But thank God I tried internet “dating” (none of which materialized) and I can say it’s just not for me.